Newsletter

Randy Howell leads after first day of Bassmaster Elite Series tournament

Randy Howell had the bass in his sights Thursday and the result was a five-fish take that handed him the lead after the first day of the Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on the St. Johns River.

The reigning Bassmaster Classic champion weighed the limit for a 27-pound, 3-ounce total to stand more than three pounds ahead of Davy Hite and Marty Robinson entering today’s second session of the four-day event. Hite, bolstered by a 10-2 catch for the day’s big fish prize, and Robinson each had 24-1 totals.

Andy Montgomery was fourth at 22-6 in the 108-man field. Local favorites Terry Scroggins (14-5) and Cliff Prince (12-8) were 44th and 58th, respectively.

All but 11 anglers collected a limit during a session that was delayed starting by 50 minutes because of heavy fog on the river at the 7:30a.m. launch time. Once the fog lifted, the professionals found ideal conditions all along the waters.

“It was a great sight-fishing day,” Howell said in an interview with bassmaster.com after his trip to the scales. “We haven’t been able to sight fish really good for so long. It was exciting to get to look at those bass and watch them eat my Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog on the beds.”

Howell, 40, collected his limit in the day’s first three hours, then concentrated on padding his take. His biggest fish weighed 7-15.

“I moved around and made some good decisions,” said the resident of Springville, Ala. “I found some bigger bass later in the day and caught ‘em.”

Both Scroggins, who has finished second and sixth in the previous to events here, and Prince, who was 16th in his series debut in 2012, also had their limit in the morning, but failed to make a big improvement.

A lot of the productive action took place in the Lake George area where one tournament observer reported to bassmaster.com counting 41 boats in the 80-acre area by late morning. Lake George is one of the river’s most prolific and well-known bedding areas for largemouth bass.

Alton Jones, who won this event the last time it was staged in 2012, was 19th with a total of 18-1. Edwin Evers, the 2011 winner was 75th with 10-14.

Brett Hite, who debuted on the Elite Series last week with a win at Lake Seminole in Bainbridge, Ga., was 49th with a 13-13 total.

The field will be cut to the top 50 anglers following today’s session. It will be trimmed again after Saturday to the final 12 for Sunday’s championship day.

“I hope to go out tomorrow down to Lake George and find some more of ’em and have a good day,” Howell said. “That’s my goal.”